"Are you sure this thing is safe Grissom?" Sara asked, her voice betraying her uncertainty.

"It's never let me down." he replied, and then decided he should probably say something a little more comforting. "It's a monument to physics Sara, what could possibly go wrong?"

Sara pulled at the restraint that, in just a few minutes, was going to be the only thing between her and the air over greater Las Vegas.

"I'd prefer not to think about it."

He smiled, half at the joke and half with the familiar anticipation that an incipient roller coaster ride always brought on. He was flung slightly forward as the coaster gave its customary pre-start jolt, and then he sat back to enjoy the ride. Sara's hands had released their grip slightly on the bar, and she appeared to be relaxing from what he could tell out of the corner of his eye.

The car rattled along the track as it was pulled up to the high point of the coaster on the conveyer belt. They were in the front of the first car, and so had an unobstructed view of the lights on The Strip when they reached the apex. He saw Sara open her mouth to say something, but whatever it was, it was lost to the wind as they plummeted down the track. He noted that her hands were back to white knuckling the bar.

Exerting effort against the forces of gravity that wanted to render him immobile, Grissom turned his head to the side as far as he could. Her face was contorted, but not with fear. She was smiling, slightly wider than normal because of the g-forces. He found his own smile was increasing well, and it had nothing to do with the pull of gravity. Her hands were no longer white at the knuckle, and it was obvious from the look on her face that she was enjoying herself.

The coaster lurched to a halt, and they exited laughing.

"Well," he said "What do you think?"

"I don't think it can hold me long enough to be a distraction." she answered honestly "But you were right, it was a good place to start."

Her stomach chose the moment of silence that followed her statement to growl rather noisily. She smiled embarrassedly.

"When was the last time you ate?" he asked her.

"About midnight." came the reply after a few moment's thought.

"How about we go and get Chinese and take it somewhere?"

"Somewhere like where?" she asked.

"My house?" he voiced the first thought that came into his head "I have the new issue Forensic Monthly, and there's a great article about making your own print powders in it."

She smiled "Did you submit red creeper?"

"No," he replied, blushing slightly. "but I thought about it."

"All right, Chinese it is."

* * * * * * *

Grissom had never quite got the handle of shop sticks. His mother used to tease him, in sign language, while she effortlessly ate her own dinner with the simple wooden sticks. He never understood how she could do it. And he never improved either, despite years of practice since.

Sara pointed that out to him within minutes of when they began eating. She was sitting with one leg tucked underneath her as she ate, and her eyes were on the article she was reading. Still, Grissom knew that he was being observed.

Which was only fair, as he was doing a great deal of observation himself.

He was torn about what he was supposed to feel. Sara had been hurt, but in that hurt, she had been split from him, which meant that, well, Grissom wasn't sure what it meant. And that too was a problem. He dropped an egg roll and it fell on to the floor and rolled across the floor a bit.

Sara bent to retrieve it, even as he did, and their hands brushed together. Sara withdrew slightly, leaving him to pick up his errant food. He tossed it into the rubbish, and attempted to eat the other, determined to save it from its compatriot's fate. Sara began to laugh. God, he'd missed hearing that sound.

"It isn't funny." he said, attempting to sound indignant and failing miserably. She laughed harder. "Sara!"

But it was no use, Sara released her chop sticks, and ceased all premise of reading the article. Sitting on her feet at his own dinner table, she laughed at him until she was red in the face and she was out of breath.

"Why don't you just use a knife and fork?" she asked breathlessly.

"Pride I guess." he answered ruefully "And a deep respect for tradition."

"That's worth sacrificing a perfectly good egg roll?" There was no hiding the mirth in her voice. He didn't trust himself to answer. She passed her second egg roll across the table to him, and picked up a fork from the cutlery container in the centre of the table and handed that to him too. He laughed. It was a refreshing sound.

"I've missed you." he said simply.

"Yeah." she replied quietly. "I've missed you too."

It hung there for a moment between them, and then crashed down into the wall that had grown up between them over the last few months, reducing it to rubble. They began to talk as they hadn't in weeks. They spoke of science and music, of cases and the days at Harvard. The flow of conversation was easy, not forced as it had been of late, and they talked of everything and anything that entered their minds.

People always thought that Gil Grissom was not a people person. That he couldn't make rational conversation with those around him. This was simply not true. What he couldn't do was talk to people who didn't share his interests. Sara Sidle did, and it was as easy as that. But then, people often said that Sara Sidle wasn't much of a people person either. Perhaps that was why they found it so easy to communicate with each other.

It was strange, Sara thought, that a few hours ago she had been throwing things around the break room, and recovering from a hangover she was reasonably certain Catherine had given her on purpose. Now, here she was reunited with, well with Grissom. She wasn't sure what else to call him at the moment. None of the conventional titles seemed to work at the moment. She realized suddenly that she has been awake for almost 18 hours, which was a stretch, even for her. She yawned.

"Are you alright?" Grissom asked.

"Yes." she replied sleepily. "I'm just feeling a little....distracted."

"Me too."

Smiling really did get easier with practice.